Mere gully mein

It was some time in 2016 when I discovered this rapper from Mumbai - Naezy. He was real down to earth rapper, unlike any other Hindi rappers free from all those daaru, party, lambo stuff, just talking about real people and real issues. I found the real gully boy and then I found everybody else - Divine, Emiway Bantai and others. As I am never stuck in one musical form or other, this Bambaiya rap also stuck with me.

Now Ranveer Sing is portraying one of these gully boys and he used Mere gully mein in his movie. This Naezy and Divine song is a classic hip hop song with dope beats. It is really catchy with local lyrics. They start from their Pincodes (zipcode in India) - Mumbai 70 and Mumbai 59 - areas close to Dharavi - land of complex labyrinth of gullys and three-story zopdi. The whole video is shot in these gullys. It just feels organic - nothing flashy about it. Lyrics describe their everyday stuff from these gullys. How they talk to each other, how they run when police arrive, mucchi (fish), ladki (girls) and other things. They even touch the multifaith aspect of Mumbai when they say "Prayer, aarti, yaa namaaz mere gully mein". These all things make this song a very raw Hindi Hip hop.

With Ranveer Sing's voice, it still maintains its sincerity and originality. I think Gully boy will be a good way to showcase the Hindi Hip hop scene and a different aspect of the music culture to a wider audience who are fade up with all those flashy party songs !!

Original Mere Gully mein -





Gully Boy version -






Additional viewing - A short film about Naezy's life  - Bombay 70


        

Kismat Se Tum Hamko Mile Ho

A very cold glacier, Anil Kapoor in a black coat, and Madhuri wearing a blue saree - a very picturesque scene and divine music by A R Rahman. This comes together in Pukar (2000). Rajkumar Santoshi decided to make a masala patriotic movie and he didn't leave any stones unturned. He brought in the best of that time Anil, Madhuri, Rahman. IMDB mentions three cinematographers for this movie so I will mention all three here because I don't want to leave anybody. Baba Azmi, Ashok Mehta and Santosh Sivan photographed this great song.

Rahman starts slow without any rhythm. With only acoustic guitar and bells he creates a perfect launching pad. After a minute and a half rhythm starts and that's when we see Anil Kapoor walking on a vast glacier. The soothing voice of Sonu Nigam and melodious voice of Anuradha Paudwal makes this song a great listening. Rahman has not used Anuradha that often but this song fits perfect with her singing style. You can't imagine anybody else singing this song but her. Javed Akhtar has penned great lyrics which connect the scene from movie at the same time being poetic. This is one of my favorite Rahman songs. Though other songs became better hits, this song has that old time melodious Rahman from his starting days. I feel this is one of the best made Hindi songs. Music, lyrics, singing, and picturization everything works in this song. At last I want to commend the professionalism of Anil Kapoor and most importantly Madhuri to be on that glacier in the cold temperature and wearing just a saree. Just to stand there would be a hard thing to do and then to act and show emotions other than freezing on your face is just amazing.


This one is original Venus video but it's shorter version of song.


This one has the full song.



Enjoy!    

Dhadak

It's a thing now, if the song is melodious it has high probability of getting stuck in my head. And no wonder the title song of movie Dhadak is the recent song in my head. Though Dhadak is an official remake of  Marathi Sairaat, this song is completely different. Ajay-Atul has made this sweet melodious tune exclusively for Dhadak. I know there are many die-hard Sairaat fans and even I was an early supporter and promoter of songs. But I still love Dhadak song. It starts with a symphony styled music with violins and base. It creates that atmosphere of love and then soothing voice of Ajay appears. He lifts you up with his refrained singing. Shreya Ghoshal compliments his singing with perfect notes. Composition wise it is not a conventional song which starts with a hook and then comes the stanza, whereas this song starts with the stanza / verse and then develops in to the hook. On screen newcomers Ishaan and Janhvi are looking perfect youngsters for this young love saga. Enjoy the video and full audio versions.

Afeemi and Sanah Moidutty

Recently my heart is stuck on another Sachin-Jigar melody - "Afeemi Afeemi". It's a great duet travelling back to the melodious roots of Bollywood movies. Lyrics of Kausar Munir reminds you how simple lyrics can make a nice tune into a beautiful song. The catch phrase Afeemi itself is little bit playful and witty. It shows how your love is growing on me like some kind of sweet hangover. Jigar's voice is perfect for this melody to explore the love tune. But the most important find is Sanah Moidutty, at least for me.

Sanah has this sweet voice, going closer to the western singing, still she is not loud anywhere. She sings this song with the ease. I guess this ease is coming from her Carnatic music training. Recently she has song many covers. I searched her other songs and found a great cover of Dil hai ke manta nahi.

Afeemi  (Lyrical)





Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahi







Enjoy!!

  

Badalon Se (Satya) बादलोंसे (सत्या)

This song is truly close to my heart. A deadly combination of Gulzar, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Bhupinder! Bhupinder has depth in his voice which is used perfectly in this sort of lounge music by Vishal. And the music provides well deserved justice to Gulzar's lyrics.


बादलोंसे चे माझया  हृदयात एक वेगळेच स्थान आहे. त्याचे थोडे मराठी रूपांतरण करायचा हा प्रयत्न. अर्थात गुलझारच्या  काव्याची सर नाही याला पण तरी आपले असेच ;)

तुला एकदा पावसात भिजताना पाहिलेले
जणू काही धबधब्याचे पाणी तुषारणारे
तेव्हापासून माझ्या स्वप्नांमध्ये बरसत असतेस
घडघड बोलतेस आणि खळखळ हसतेस
जे तुला ओळखत ही नाहीत अशांना तुझे नाव विचारतो
हे मला रे काय झाले .. (मी असे हे का करतो )
अशी अर्धवस्त्रांकीत गुलाबी किनार्‍यावर येत जाऊ नकोस
मिठूर समुद्रात  असे हे खेळ खेळत जाऊ नकोस
दिवसभर एक चांदणे पसरलेले राहते
आणि गुलाबी ऊन गोंधळून जाते
जांभळाच्या नाजूक फांदीवर नखाने ते नाव कोरतो
हे मला रे काय झाले .. (मी असे हे का करतो )
ढगांतूंन कापून कापून ते नाव मी कागदावर जोडतो
हे मला रे काय झाले .. (मी असे हे का करतो )
रात्रभर त्या चंद्राला दोर्‍यांनी बांधत बसतो
हे मला रे काय झाले ..(मी असे हे का करतो )



  

Enjoy !

Overproduction and problems with Hindi music

I have always wondered what makes a good song? Is it music or lyrics or production or tune or beats ? I feel the combination of all these things makes a good song. But recently I have been thinking there is something not correct in the songs I'm listening.  And then it clicked !! I'm hearing a lot of extra sounds and music. This extra stuff is actually not required. This is overproduction!! If you are making a song with good lyrics and good singers, you should not overpower this with the overproduced music. Right orchestration is really important. With wrong orchestration and overproduction songs become very tough to enjoy. A fairly new song with minimum production is Pani da rang from Vicki Donor. It has nice lyrics and voice. And the music is just there in the background to help the voice to shine. 

Afreen Afreen ...

In 1996 a rare thing happened. Two great personalities from two countries India and Pakistan came together to produce an album which would gladly be named as Sangam. A confluence of music talents from both countries. And it produced a gem of Afreen Afreen.

Afreen Afreen has a great poetry of Javed Akhtar. He is one of the important lyricist from India. Afreen Afreen means the beautiful one. It's a song of praise to that beautiful one who has the divine beauty. The first stanza praises impeccable body (Jism), the second stanza praises the alluring face (Chehra), the third stanza tells the story of those enchanting eyes (Aankhe), and the final stanza praises pristine silky black hair (Zulfen). The whole structure is just Afreen - very beautiful. Javed Akhtar, in his poetry, paints an attractive and exquisite picture of this beautiful one that has captured the imagination of the poet. Is it real, or is it just a mirage ? It doesn't matter because it's really beautiful.

And Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has done the real justice to this poetry with his euphonious voice and music. He has sung this song with great passion. He guides you to observe the beauty of that lyrical painting. He has produced two versions of the song, an extended version with harmonious music and the more famous remix version with only two stanzas. The music video was made only for the remix version which featured Lisa Ray. It was one of the famous videos in 1996. Very recently Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sang a modified version for Coke Studio. And is sounded melodious with the soothing voice of Rahat. I am adding all three versions here. Compare and see which one is your favorite.


Original Album Version




Extended Version




Coke Studio Version





Enjoy !